For many years, information was typically conveyed to an audience by use of static displays. For example, product advertisements were presented using print ads and posters. With the advent of television and movies, information could be presented using a dynamic display (e.g., commercials). While more engaging than static displays, dynamic displays do not typically provide interactivity between a user and the display.
More recently, interactive touchscreens have been used for presenting information on flat surfaces. For example, an image may be displayed on a touchscreen, and a user may interact with the image by touching the touchscreen, causing the image to change. However, in order to interact with the image displayed on the touchscreen, the user must actually come in contact with the touchscreen. Moreover, typically touchscreens can only receive one input at any time, and are not able to discern the shape of the input. Essentially, current touchscreens are only able to receive the input of one finger contact.
In some applications, such as point-of-sale, retail advertising, promotions, arcade entertainment sites, etc., it is desirable to provide an interactive interface for displaying information to a user. This interactivity provides an even more engaging interface for presenting information (e.g., media, advertisements, etc.). By catching the attention of a person, for even a few moments, the person may be more likely to absorb the information presented in the interactive display than in previous displays.
As described above, current interactive displays typically require a user to physically contact a touchscreen surface. By requiring contact with a touchscreen to provide interactivity, a large number of potential users are not interested in or intimidated by current interactive displays. Moreover, since only one user may interact with a touchscreen at a time, more users are excluded. Furthermore, because current touchscreens cannot discern the shape of input, they are limited in the type of information that can be presented in response to interaction.